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Uber driver charged with sexually assaulting a passenger in Quincy; victim saves herself by texting a friend

Quincy Police report arresting an Uber driver from West Roxbury on charges of indecent assault and battery and kidnapping for an incident Wednesday afternoon.

Police say Kastriot Naksi, 46, assaulted a woman passenger shortly before 1 p.m. - after first demanding she move from the back to the front seat and then locking his car's doors so she couldn't get out.

Police say officers were able to zero in on his Civic on Cottage Avenue because Naksi didn't take the woman's phone away and she was able to text a help message to a friend:

Quincy Police Dispatch received a call from a party who stated that her friend (the victim) had been sexually assaulted by an Uber driver and that the driver was scheduled to drop the victim off on Cottage Ave. The caller stated that the Uber vehicle was a gray Honda Civic and provided the license plate number.

Officers arrived on Cottage Ave and spoke with the reporting party. She told officers that she had received a text message from the victim that indicated the Uber driver had touched her inappropriately and that he would not let her out of the vehicle. The victim sent her friend a screenshot of her current location. A BOLO (Be On The Lookout) was given to all cars in the area.

At approx. 1:20pm, Officer Delaney observed the gray Honda Civic travelling on Cottage Ave. He immediately motioned for the vehicle to stop and allowed the victim to exit the vehicle.

Upon speaking with the victim, she told officers that while enroute to Quincy, the Uber driver pulled over to the side of the road and told her to get in the front seat. The victim stated that this was a ride-share Uber, so she agreed. She stated that the driver then touched her inappropriately. When she told the driver to stop and let her out, he locked the door. At that point she texted her friend.

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

Uber apps should have an "SOS" button which transmit's video/audio and live location to Uber/authorities.

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I suppose, but it might just be better to dial 911 and let them listen in and determine location on their end (which they can theoretically do). I'm not sure Uber is willing to accept that kind of liability. Plus it creates that extra hoop to jump through - when seconds count, can you rely on an Uber call center monkey to get the police for you?

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The best 911 could do is get the location of the nearest cell tower when the call came in. In a moving car, that might not help much - and police wouldn't know what sort of car to look for. In this case, the woman was able to get police right to her via her friend by providing the car's make and location.

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911 may be able to get you an approximate location based on cell tower triangulation, but GPS is more accurate. Also, I believe there are SOS apps out there that transmit your video and location discretely, even with the screen off. Doesn't have to be Uber's.

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Why just to Uber authorities? They would just end up defending their employee. It should be to the local police who are within that jurisdiction of the crime being committed.

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Uber does have this feature in some developing markets. They should add it here, for both driver and passenger safety.

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Uber should screen their prospective drivers better, and maybe they wouldn't have so many problems.

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It might actually make sense to add an SOS button in the Uber app.

Pressing it would record vehicle, location etc. And alert Ubers op center, if not local authority.

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... about as safe as hitchhiking.

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of Uber drivers, I would assume, are fine. However, there does seem to be a high instance of bad behavior by Uber drivers.

Interesting story regarding the safety of taking an Uber versus a taxi:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/03/are-taxis-safer-t...

I, personally, would not take an Uber as the sole passenger.

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there does seem to be a high instance of bad behavior by Uber drivers.

Data?

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Morning Bob:

All I said is that there seems to be a high instance as my attached article noted, and that being said,it is hard to verify if taking an Uber is safer than taking a taxi because no one tracks this data. Personally, I would not feel as comfortable taking a Uber alone as if I took a taxi alone. However, I do agree that one can be assaulted in a taxi by a taxi driver.

But you can check out this:

http://www.whosdrivingyou.org/rideshare-incidents

and this

https://www.cnet.com/news/how-risky-is-your-uber-ride-maybe-more-than-yo...

and this

https://www.dailydot.com/via/uber-lyft-safety-background-checks/

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As uber keeps cutting the $ and support for drivers, the ones continuing to drive are the ones who need it the most. getting to be on par with taxi drivers in many ways, only difference is you can actually report bad behavior so the very worst will get weeded out by the algorithm.

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1997: Don't get into strangers' cars.
2007: Beware of strangers on the internet.
2017: Literally summon strangers from the internet and get into their cars.

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